Pam's Vlog: Are Clay Pot Heaters Safe?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ค. 2024
- Clay pot heaters are popular, inexpensive, and easy to make. But how efficient are they? And how safe are they? This video explores those questions.
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A great presentation. Life saving. Thank you for taking the time to explain the importance of keeping safety in mind. You stay safe too.
I've watched several videos on clay pot heaters and this was by far the best organized and scientific. Wish I could give more than a single thumbs-up.
These are maybe survival skill knowledge with pros and cons ,when freezing near death to death from cold.We must work with what we have to survive in extreme energencys.
Desperate times Desperate measures
Young lady, you are an excellent instructor. The information that you share is well thought out and I enjoy your common sense approach. Thank you for what you do and how you present it.
So many people out there claiming you can heat your whole home with just a few of these. Here they tells us what we real need to know. Thank You for the video
I think most people are concerned about the wrong thing in a grid down situation. Personally, I couldn't give two figs about heating the space inside our home. I'm only concerned with keeping the people inside it warm. To that end I do use tea candles, but I use them to heat water for hot water bottles not to heat a room. It's old technology that still works. Get yourself one of those wraps that's meant to hold the bottle over your stomach for cramps & spin it around, so the bottle is over your kidneys & you'll be toasty while you putter about the house cooking or what not. Take one to bed with you to place down near your feet & you'll be warm all night. I even have ones to place in each of our animals' beds. The cat especially seems to think it's a great treat to snuggle up to his own hot water bottle.
On a side note, I believe what people are trying to achieve with these little heaters is radiation from thermal mass, but clay pots don't offer much in the way of mass. Bricks would be a better option since more mass equals more storage for heat, but I believe your best bet would be to stack a few bricks around the candles to hold up a pot of water. Water makes excellent thermal mass & puts humidity into the air and humid air is easier to heat than dry air so it's a sort of win/win.
and sweaters.... and hats
Great ideas especially using the bricks. Do you know how long they will retain heat?
@@thinker3830 Sorry I can't give you a time because how hot you get the bricks determines how long they'll stay warm. It's an adaptation of an old camping trick just with bricks instead of rocks but if you can wrap a hot brick in something like a towel you can slip it in your bed to warm you with no fire danger. Keeping yourself warm at home without power or a wood stove is really about the space you're trying to heat. The larger the space & the higher the ceiling the larger a heat source you'll need. Remember building chair forts as a kid? A sleeping or sitting area made from blankets like that can be heated with a tea candle heater. You're entire living or bedroom not so much. Hope that helps.
The best idea is to take the animals to bed with you!
Great input, much appreciated 👍🏼
Anytime you are using a secondary heat source in a grid down situation, it's best to only try to heat a small, self contained room, and I would say very few have a wood stove to use. By using the design that incorporates a large threaded bolt, with washers, those metal components also capture and dissipate the heat created by the tea lights. The threaded bolt also serves the purpose of blocking that top hole, where most of the heat is escaping, not retaining that heat. Another way to capture heat is to place small rocks on the top of the pot.....those can then be put into a sock or whatever and used as a bedwarmer. There are multiple ways of encompassing the tealights in a safe container. I don't believe that the set up that you have demonstrated is the most efficient....but I'm happy that you have found the principle overall to be effective. Thanks for presenting this concept to the community....as always, valuable information!!
I like the rocks idea
👍🙏💫
The vlogger got it all wrong, bless 'er.
@@charliesmith_ then what is the right way?
I've seen a lot of people use tea light candles. I would like to see if a kerosene lamp style candle would be successfully used for example a tiki candle ???. Or a crisco candle
You need the small holes for heat to go out into the larger pot watch other videos it will tell you this
I love you do the math. You also speak of safety in everything you post. Thank you for being a reliable source of information.
Hi! Cast iron radiates heat very well. I had lost power for a week during the winter (I live in Western New York about 1/2 hour from Lake Erie in the snow belt) my home was nice & toasty. The only thing is that you need to be very careful of carbon monoxide poisoning if you are heating your pans with a gas stove. 👍🏼
This is probably a stupid question, but how are you using the cast iron ? With candles? On stove filled with water.?
I pray people will take heed to the very important information you are giving us all to be safe.
Rather than suggest a "last resort" of using a clay pot/open flame heater, a far better alternative would be to get a two or three-man tent and set it up in your living room. Line it with comforters on the outside (and inside) for insulation. When body heat is limited to a confined, insulated space, it retains heat far better than using something dangerous with an open flame. If you lose power, use a gas stove outside the tent (on your kitchen counter) to heat water. Using the boiling water, add hot water bottles to the floor. If possible, place the tent by a window that receives sunlight during the day. Confining your living space works. How else could Eskimos survive on a frozen ice pack?
I tried that but the stakes kept damaging the tiles...lol
Ah ha ! You can set it up right on your bed, We got one and set it up. Doing reverse on this in FL for small, cool space providing sleep relief. 2 little solar generators low draw power fan. God be with you as survivors.
I did exactly this with a small electric heater all winter. No bubbles, no troubles. I have since finished the house.
I'm wanting heat all winter not just for power outage , and don't want to live in a tent lol , with energy prices so high I'm using candles rather than put my heating on , and I don't leave them unattended or in a bad spot , if it's just for a few hours that helps
that will work better than this
So well thought out and done, thank you. As an electrical technician, safety is my first concern and I love it that you guys focus on this. Great information.
Not everyone has the big beautiful home you are blessed to have ‼️🤗🙏🏼
Great to understand this background information thank you.
My experience after lozing power on our cargoship is two pots conected by a thread and one thealight is just good to keep your hands from freezing. Give you just that little extra warmth to take a short rest from hard labour to make it through the rest of the day.
For warming up complete I needed a bed with a lot of blankets and 5 hot water bottles.
It learns you gratitude.
I still keep this setup in case of an emergency and for whenn I camp in the trailor.
Yess, no mather what happens, now the fire you make and totaly respect that fire.
Be prepared and stay warm all of you 🤗
I've watched many of your canning videos. I love your science teacher side.
I would suggest you invest in good stainless steel cookware with lids. You can use the tea lights inside. The stainless steel radiates. In the event of fire you slide the lid on from the side. NEVER come down from the top as it pushes the 02 that feeds the fire flame. Anyway, if there is a fire it will be contained in the pot. The secure lid will suffocate the flame due to lack of 02.
You are so precious & kind... I love all of your videos & I make lots of notes about things you talk about & explain 💯❣ Thank you for sharing so much knowledge & experience 💯❣
Much love & prayers from TEXAS ❣🤗
I saw these on a couple different videos and I thought how cool they were so I ran out and got myself some clay pots and I have been collecting tea candles. But I am so glad that I watched your video today because it gave me some heads up on a few things that the other videos didn't tell me to be aware of!!!
Then to use say in a bathroom or in a laundry room for your pipes or in the kitchen right by the pipes this is to keep you from having thousands of dollars worth of damage and to keep you alive It's not to keep you comfy It's to keep you alive so no one is trying to say to use these to heat a 10x10 room and certainly no one's comparing it to a furnace but thank you for all that information I'm sure you had a ball figuring it all out ‼️❣️ And you can also use those wonderful candles that you made in the last video that are supposed to last a hundred hours although I don't think the tiny little ones you made will last that long but the big ones and a bigger pot is what they're suggesting to help keep a family safe ‼️
Great video, well explained.
I made one of these, not in a survival situation, but just for fun, seeing if I could add a little heat to a room. I found that it did work. It turns the convective heat being created by burning the candles into radiant heat, so keeps all the heat from the candles from ending up near the ceiling.
Like you said in the video, it's just generating a few hundred BTUs. So it didn't warm the room. But (as you also mentioned) it did warm a space very close to the heater. So I set the candle "heater" on a little table next to my usual spot on the couch, and turned the house heat down to 60. The room stayed chilly, but I wasn't cold, because it created some nice heat near the area where I was sitting.
Thank you so much for not only reviewing this heat source, but also emphasizing “safety”. 😊👍
You are welcome!
Pam, you are a gem to have gone through all the trouble of checking all this out! Thank you so much for doing this. Happy New year to you, your husband and family!
Pam, thanks so much for this great info! It’s good to know at this time of year. Please thank Jim too! ❤️🌹
Ms. Pam, thank you for doing the math and for providing a BTU map!! Excellent information about these tea-light fire info. Love the idea of the instant read thermometer. thermal thermometer!!! Thank you for additional videos about how to stay warm if the grid goes down for whatever reason!!! Bless you and Mr. Jim for these videos!!! I feel so much safer knowing that you both care about your subscribers are important to ya'll!!!!! 🌹🌹🌹🌹
Stephenrsm7600: Thank you for the very kind feedback. Jim
Thanks again Pam and Jim. You broke this down to a point where I understand thoroughly. Love the chart and I did not even know that was available! You would also need to calculate the burn rate on the candles to determine the amount of candles you would need for a day. Thank you for this great information.
I was thinking of doing this for my RV. Thanks.
I looked all over for this information. Dozens of videos and this is the best. Thank you.
Thanks for all the valuable information. Love your teaching! Blessings ❤
Thank you for sharing. I always love to watch your well researched experiments. I won't be doing this Terra cotta heater, but I was wondering for others about making sure the area is well ventilated.
I used one of these flowerpot heaters with 2 crisco candles to try to keep my canning shed from freezing this winter. It helped a little but I need something better next year. The building is very well insulated
I absolutely love it that you tell us the truth and the safety measures with everything you video! I appreciate your extra efforts to keep us safe! ❤
Thank you for making such a thorough and understandable study of both the efficacy and the safety of this method. We did get a wood stove last year as our gas furnace has an electric safety switch of some kind. If the power goes out, so does the heat. Apparently they are all made this way now. The house is old, having started out as a rectangular cabin and rooms added on every couple of decades, so it's a bit of a maze now. The heat will not keep the back of the house where the pipes are very warm but, I daresay, if we REALLY needed to warm that area in well below freezing temps, we could now use this knowledge to add some heat to the room with the most danger of freezing pipes - and use it safely and effectively. Thank you so much.
I made two of these last year and hung them in my basement. I wanted to make the area around me warmer as I painted with acrylic flow painting. It worked well enough to warm it up about 5 degrees. It gets pretty cold here in Wisconsin during the winter months. I had 4 tea lights in one lantern and 3 in the other. The one with four, once the wax melted, became like a single fire in the middle and caused a large fire underneath the pot! I had each lantern with the two terra cotta pots on steel rods and hanging with bolts to secure them. Unfortunately, when the one pot had such a big fire underneath, I could not suffocate it by closing the gap of air because of the bolts securing it. I ran and got a wet towel to momentarily cover the gap of oxygen to suffocate it. OMG... thank God it worked! So my friend, Be Very Careful and be prepared when you try this! Blessings to you!
Thank you for sharing and I am so glad your quick action put out the fire. We will not use these. We have other alternatives.
@@RoseRedHomestead Thank you for bringing up this topic! Needless to say, I haven't used them again. Love your channel by the way:)
Again, you have done all the homework for us. I always feel more comfortable about safety issues after watching your videos . Have always thought the flowerpot heaters were interesting but would not use one in my house. Thanks for the information.
Thank you so much for breaking down the BTU output on these candles. I look forward to your info on alternative heat sources in a grid down situation.
Kim: You are so welcome! Jim
Thank you for both the time you spent investigating this and the clear explanation you gave.
You are welcome.
Kym: We appreciate that you watched our channel. Jim
Great presentation as always. Thank you, Pam.
You are so welcome! Jim
Thank you Pam and Jim. Great information, we were wondering if this was worth while.
I was very impressed with your research and presentation! Thank you very much
Great explanation. I have not seen any other video that provided such detailed information! I appreciate your knowledge very much! Thank you for sharing. I hope lots of people see this. I feel sure it will save lives and property.
Thank you so much for the energy you put into researching this for us! I have been so curious! Now I feel much more informed...😀 much appreciated
You are very welcome.
Thanks for clearing up a lot of peoples misconceptions about these heaters. Great info.
Very good information. I scratched the idea of using metal bolts to connect anything.
Thank you for this! I’ve passed over many videos about this, but decided to learn the real ‘poop’ about them from you. I believe I’ll continue to pass them by!
That was our decision as well. But if someone has no other alternative, perhaps they could be used if safety was paramount.
Thank you again! Wonderful demonstration!
You are welcome.
Thank you for sharing this. I have seen several videos over the years about these and wondered how something so small could generate enough heat to warm an entire room (as some had claimed).
Thank you, Pam and Jim!
I heard of this in 2015 (a particularly bad winter for us). We live on top a mountain that frequently has power failure in winter. So thought we'd give it a try. 1st thing I noticed was it is not safe around pets. Then I had other fire concerns. What follows is how we warmed the bedrooms: For each bedroom we used 4 bricks, a 12-in pizza pan, 8 clay pot risers, 1 10-in clay pot, 1 4-in clay pot, a tea candle & 1 10-in clay pot saucer.The 4 bricks go on the floor with the pizza pan on top. Then 4 pot risers on the metal pan under the large pot. The small pot goes inside the large pot. The candle goes inside the small pot; light it. The remaining 4 risers go on top of the rim of the large pot with the inverted saucer on top of those. It worked fairly OK. What worked better was eliminating the candle and warming the pots with the wood stove before bedtime.
I never feel safe combining flame and cats.
Great video. I love the science
Not to seem ridiculous, but why would you need the pots if you have a wood stove?
@@tagladyify Maybe it's cause their house is so big and it helps warm the "outside rooms". We too have a wood stove, but the rooms farthest away are still pretty cold. 🙂
@@tagladyify because the bedrooms are at the other end of the house; and, I much prefer to sleep in my bed than on my sofa.
@@redeemedvintageseamstress4728 exactly!
@@s.leeyork3848 how long do the pots end up heating your bedroom?
Appreciate your time and effort!
Great idea Pam. Thanks
Brilliant analysis thank you.
Amazingly through presentation. Learned way more from you, thx!
Thank you for possibly the only sensible presentation about these heaters on TH-cam. This type of heating was originally used to keep the frost out of greenhouses, and yet people are expecting them to make a whole house toasty and warm... and, as you say, they won’t. Thank you.
Look forward to next info you do on this. Great video!
I appreciate your videos. I think you are saving lives. There are other videos warning these are not safe but you provide the why. Thank you!
It is a good video but I did Alert her to NOT put candles so close to each other under one clay pot..they can create ONE BIG FLAME
I have a butane heater for emergencies, but my cousin uses a large, ventilated aluminum can and inverts it over a utility candle. He then puts it under a card table that has a floor-length tablecloth over it. The can itself heats up A LOT, and it in turn warms the space under the tablecloth. He wears a jacket and stocking cap in the house, sits at the card table to take care of all of his deskwork and reading, and the heat from the candle and the aluminum can will keep his feet and legs very toasty. In addition, the tabletop work surface where his hands are working warms up nicely. Warm hands and feet can make an enormous difference in one's comfort level in a power outage during an ice storm.
The aluminum can might emit bad fumes.
Very interesting. Thanks for the explanation and your time.
Such a great video. Thank you so much. The last thing I was expecting was a lesson in the first laws of thermodynamics! Very impressed 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Glad you enjoyed it! Jim
Excellent video. Very relevant for this winter as well👍
Thank you Pam, I learned a lot about BTU's. What concerns me the most is the quality of a "terracotta" pots. Pots from overseas are not very thick or are not made with good clay. Last Christmas wanted to make flower pot cakes. Store like Hobby L. picked up pot and it actually broke in my hand. Made in china. My thoughts Donna
Good to know. I had no idea, but I guess I am not surprised. Thanks for sharing.
She didn't tell you what btu stands for though....we'll send you some over from Britain....;0)
I don't know what to say, except you impressed me. You nailed it. Thanks for the video. God bless and have a great 2023. 🤗
Thank you! You too! Jim
Thank you for posting. Good info.
I made one of these a few years ago when I moved into this apartment which is total electric. I used it this morning because the temp outside was in the low 20's, to see if it would take the chill off the room. It did work. I have a 2 pot system with a bolt in the center but really I would hate to have to rely on this for heat long term! The tea lights only last 3 hrs but I did see a video where once the tea lights form a puddle of wax, then sprinkle table salt into the wax. Supposedly that allows it to burn about an hour longer but I have not tried this. Propane heaters are forbidden here and there is no fireplace. Thankfully I don't have small children or pets any longer to worry about knocking them over. I have sleeping bags and a tent I would put in the room and maybe this pot warmer would heat that, but for now I'm glad I don't have to rely on it!
A small tent will be warmer to sleep in than a whole room, less air space to heat up, about 20 degrees warmer than outside temp. No flames required
or get some cans of vegetable shortening
Excellent information, thank you.
Very good info. Thank you, Pam and Hubby. The open flame always concerned me. I guess if you're really cold, it's better than nothing. Blessings, julie
Thanks for sharing your research and experience.
Nicely done!
Years ago (decades actually) my parents and i camped with family friends in their camper. A six inch clay pot inverted over a gas burner on the stove provided heat during the night. Flame turned very low. It was more than adequate to heat the small space. Indio date festival, late '60's, Indio California.
I have always wondered about this! Thank you for sharing your research!
Amanda: Your welcome. Jim
I have done similar with cast iron planchet over a gas buddy heater as well as over butane and white gas burners to provide radiant heat outside. It works even better when paired with a thermoelectric wood stove fan.
Inside, I have tea warmers that I'll put three candles in and a cast iron bowl on top. You have to keep it on a heat resistant surface or put something under it if its on a wood table but it provides a significant amount of extra heat to a room. As a bonus, you can sacrifice some of the heating potential in exchange for humidity by putting water in the bowl.
A trick for making sure your pots, stones and kindling are dry. Stick them in a cold oven, bring it up to about 220F for about 10-20 minutes then turn the oven off with the door slightly open until you can tolerate touching the object inside.
Convection does help.
If you have to kiln dry firewood bigger than kindling, it can take up to 2 hours, especially if you really load up the oven.
Thank you for your video and the amount of work you put into it. I knew about them but not the calculations.
@@timelesslordkotahi This was not my video, but I hope you found my comment helpful as well.
Waste of energy and time.
Very well done. Thank you!
Thank you so much for all your videos. I love them. They are so informative. Bless you guys
Our pleasure! So glad you like them.
I have used a wood burning stove for 50 years. Last year I set these pots on top of my stove to take the chill off of my living room. It worked pretty well.
Hello. New subscriber from Alberta Canada. Really appreciate the no-nonsense, get-er done content. Thanks so much for your effort. The whole world needs more teachers like you. I’m not much for subscribing nor commenting; but you definitely tickled my heart. Thanks so much.
Awesome! Thank you! And welcome!
Thank you, for explaining BTU!
Very informative. Thank you.
Thank you once again with sharing your wisdom. I always learn important information from you. Knowledge is power and in these most difficult times it is wise and prudent to learn as many skills as possible. Thank you and God bless both of you!
You are so welcome
John: You are welcome! Jim
ROSE, so important, Carbon monoxide detector. Small spaces will be especially deadly with open flames!! Proper ventilation.
Great video and great info.
That was fun learning and very informative!!😃🙏
This video was very informative. Thanks so much.
I don't know...I think I am just going to have to start paying tuition 🙃.
I didn't think this could be a safe venture when I first saw it awhile ago. I have changed my opinion because it depends on the careful attention to detail of the "generator". The funny funny is Jim's voice making an appearance at the hugging reference! 🫂 Sounds good 😉 to him. Love your interactions with each other, so sweet. I Love your hearts.
Thank you both ❤❤❤.
Well done, Pam!
Thank you for this information! Happy 2022! Can't wait for the book!
Lynn: You are welcome! Happy New Year, too! Spring for the book. Jim
Thank you for the time and research you have done to teach all of us how to besafe
Thank you so much for the information.
I so appreciate your teaching me the scientific parameters around this DIY system. Now I am going to find the next video. The internet needs more vigilant people like you and Hubby.
Trudi: Glad it was helpful! Jim
Great video. Thanks !!!
Excellent information. Bery informative.
I really appreciated this educational video.
Thank you Pam for this stellar information. I love that you give us all the equations needed to use these heaters efficiently. I would also not use them unless I was in dire straights. I wanted to tell you that there are fans that are powered by the heat of your fireplace or wood heater that you can buy to circulate the warm air in place of your blower. I had found them a short time ago, you might want to look into one for when your power is out.
You are so welcome! And thanks for that great idea! I will look for them.
Tamie: Thanks for the information. Jim
@@RoseRedHomestead You're so welcome. I have seen the fans at Lehman's and on Amazon. You might also find them at stores that carry wood stoves like a Tractor Supply.
Those cheap aluminized plastic blankets are a godsend. They can be used in many ways!
Very informative, great video
WOW ! You are not the average house keeper. Your knowledge of physics is above the average of most couples. Thank you for your common sense views and mathematical calculations which most people are ignorant of.
I am impressed.
Pam you are a great teacher!!😀
Oh thank you! Jim
Excellent review as usual. I love your scientific information. I have these clay pot heaters but u made sense of it all
Great information, thanks!!!
Wonderful to hear a presentation from someone who clearly has a solid education👍
I'm guessing you have an educational background as a teacher/professor. Or a history as an engineer.
Great presentation and safety bulletin 👍👍👍💕💕💕
Thank you 😊
Yes, teacher, university professor and administrator. Jim
What an informative and useful video. I’ve used tea light candles, 2 in a little tin foil pan, to keep myself warm, in a Ford super-cab, in the late, cold, Northwestern Ontario fall, while waiting for my big-game hunters to come back. I had to take my winter jacket off! So, candle heat from regular use I can see, but I’d be uncomfortable with some odd thing like this. Thank you for all your work!!
Very . Interesting . Thanks Pam
Jerris: You are so welcome. Jim